The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-11-26
PANIcS IN THEATERs.
The Senseless Madness That Takes HOLD
of Some People.

The Senseless Madness That Takes Hold
of Some People.
It seems impossible, when you look
around at gallant men and amiable
women, sitting placidly at play.
that In moment, on tho utterance Of
one word, they can be turned into
dumb. driven cattle, senseless. suicidal
idiots. But it is SO. Any night the
auditorium OF fashionable theater
may echo TO some unfortunate note Of
alarm. In an instant the gray haired
banker, whose dignity gave tone to
his whole section, is walking up the
backs Of women and over the heads Of
children.
At the Park Theater one night Cthe
theater that happily was destroyed by
fire about three hours before the time
when it would have been packed by
New York's best people to witness
Miss Langtry's debut) some dude.
entering up the unsafe and tortuous
stairway. threw his cigarette through
the iron grating of the steps. S some
accumulated rubbish began to
smolder, and q volume Of smoke
poured into the auditorium.
About half the audience sitting there
knew that the stage had an enormous
square opening direct upon Twenty
second street-a door not ten feet from
the level of the street. Every soul in
the house could have gone over the
low footlights. crossed the stage, and
been in Twenty. second street in three
minutes time. They had all entered
the theater by the crooked, narrow
passage; they all knew its miserable
limits; they saw the smoke coming in
at that narrow passage, and yet, when
some scared scamp near the door
jumped to his feet and screeched
"Firer' they all with one accord start
ed to the rear. regardless Of life or
limb. Luckily, that night stalwart
policeman, with the lungs Of Stentor.
calmly said: There amt no fire; it's
been put out" He grabbed the first
lot of mad people and bodily put 'em
down into seats; but for few min
utes there was the widest kind
Of scrimmage. A well-known and
dignified citizen had sat In high-bred
ease two seats ahead of me during the
performance. As the panic struck
him he rose. mounted over the back
of his seat, nd started TO walk on
the shoulders Of some fashionably at
tired ladies. 1t seemed an occasion
for remonstrance and i had slight
but severe remark to make, and made
it with an opera glass; the old gentle
man took the kindly hint and conclud-
ed to walk on his legs in the aisle,
but he had made fair start to tramp
to safety over his fellow creatures.
Another time in the Cosmopolitan
Hall at Forty Second street the place
was crowded for first night Of min
strelsy. There was low gallery run
ming round the building, supported
on q series of iron posts. During the
evening one Of these pasis slipped off
''the block" and crashed through in
TO billiard saloon in the basement;
the gallery in that particular spot
sagged, creaked, and some
beam split with alarming noise.
In moment all was excite
ment in the crowded gallery. was
sitting few feet in front of this spot.
and being fearful that people might
begin to jump down on my devoted
head. l pushed my escort very i'm
portant and self-sufficient gentleman.
and suggested that we get into two
broad aisles beside him where. If peo-
pie jumped, they would not jump on
us. got no response, and might as
well have pushed at the side of the
house, he was so immovable. With
'level-fronting eyelids' he confronted
nothing and looked at it steadily. He
clasped hard Derby hat against his
stomach and was as near petrifaction
as is consis ent with life.
After the alarm subsidod and the
performance was resumed, 1t was dis
covered that my scared friend had
crushed his hat on his body as fiat as a
mustard plaster. and pressed the nails
of one hand SO venomously into the
other that the blood had started
through the cut skin. = Cincinnati En-
01ii7.er